Saskatoon police are investigating why it took officers more than an hour to arrive at the scene of a crash involving a fatality on 20th Street.

The crash occurred early Friday morning, and the first call to police was made at 5:20 a.m. Responders did not arrive until 6:26 a.m.

“Obviously the delay that occurred this morning, knowing the circumstances now, is not acceptable,” police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards said.

“We know that we have to look at how that call was handled to determine exactly what happened and why it happened the way it did, and make changes if we need to.”

Police believe the driver experienced a medical emergency just prior to the collision. The truck he was driving crossed through opposing traffic and struck a parked vehicle. Investigators are unsure if it was the medical emergency or the crash itself that caused his death.

Edwards said several factors could account for the delay, including its timing in relation to a police shift change and the nature of the information given to the dispatch unit. She added there is currently no timeline for when the internal review will be completed.

“It wasn’t acceptable that we did not arrive there before we did today. We know that. We want to review it, and figure out what went wrong,” Edwards said.

MD Ambulance spokesman Troy Davies said the ambulance company’s dispatch team received a call about the collision at 6:02 a.m. and arrived by 6:09 a.m. The incident was first reported by an employee at Nestor’s Bakery. Another three calls were made to 911 before police reached the scene.

Edwards said the response time standard for police is 70 minutes in non-injury collisions and 17 minutes when a crash involves injury.

Though he was not present until after police had left the scene, Nestor’s Bakery manager Keith Jorgenson said it was his understanding that bakery employees had notified dispatch of a possible injury.

“They relayed they weren’t sure if the person inside was bleeding, so they would have been aware that there was someone inside the vehicle and they were in distress,” Jorgenson said.

After the fourth 911 call was made by a worker at a nearby business, Atlas Industries, Jorgenson said that caller and one of the bakery employees smashed through a window on the vehicle, removed the driver and attempted to resuscitate him.

Jorgenson said the bakery’s employees were clearly shaken by the incident, and questioned whether they could have saved the driver’s life had they known earlier that help would take so long to arrive.

“It’s super hard to understand what happened. From the bakery, I count seven blocks to St. Paul’s Hospital and, depending on how you count it, 15 or 16 blocks to the police station,” he said.

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